Getting Started with Sketchfab

Before uploading to your Sketchfab profile, you'll need to create a 3D model or scan. There are plenty of software options out there - we've highlighted a few popular ones in the Creating 3D Models section.

Exercise: To walk you through the uploading process here, though, we’ve prepared a sample 3D model for you to download. Head to this model page and click Download under the viewer to download the FBX file available.

1. Prepare your 3D Files

Sketchfab supports lots of 3D formats, and your choice will depend on your 3D software and project needs. If you’re unsure which to use, we recommend either OBJ or FBX files - both are reliable, support most 3D features, and most 3D software can export them.

If you're using OBJ, you’ll want to include a MTL file when uploading to Sketchfab, as well as textures, if you have them. If you're using FBX, textures can be embedded or separate.

It’s best to prepare your models by combining all your files into a ZIP file. Not only does this allow you to upload your textures/materials all at once, it also reduces upload size and time.

2. Upload

Now that you have a 3D model ready, it’s time to upload. First, you’ll want to login to your Sketchfab account.

Once you’re logged in, you can upload in two different ways:

Click Upload in the top-right corner on any page

Drag and drop your 3D files anywhere on the page

Once you start the uploading process, a window will appear for you to fill out more information about your model - title, description, categories, tags, etc.

3. Check the appearance

Once your model is done uploading and processing, you should be able to see it on the Models section of your profile. Now we can take advantage of a number of Sketchfab tools to make it look even better.

You’ll notice you can move, rotate, and zoom your model by clicking, dragging, and scrolling in the Sketchfab viewer. There are many navigation options, including shifting your model’s lighting and sorting through annotations.

Once your model is in a position you like, click the Save View button in the top-left corner of the model page viewer. Clicking the Save View button will save the default position/orientation and set the thumbnail preview for your model that people will see on Sketchfab or when used as an embed. (You can always edit this again later, if you’d like.)

If your model is animated, clicking Save View while viewing your model in Static Mode or during an animated sequence will determine how others initially see your model - moving or not. See the Animation guide for more details.

3D Settings

To edit the presentation of your model, you can explore the 3D Settings. Within this section, you’ll find a number of options and post-processing tools:

Changing your model's rotation axis In the Scene tab, you can change your model's orientation by 90° increments around the x-, y-, or z-axis, or you can fine-tune it by selecting “Show advanced rotation”.

Adding lights

Before setting the lighting for your model, you'll want to choose between Lit (default) and Shadeless. Shadeless will remove the effects of any lights from your materials. This is often a good option for 3D scans, or models with baked lighting.

Sketchfab offers a few ways to light your models. Real-time dynamic lights simulate different kinds of lights sources like direction, spot and point lights. You can choose from one of the six presets in 3D Settings, or you can manually add a light.

Let’s try manually adding one.

Click the Point light under the Lighting tab. Point lights simulate small sources of lights, such as light bulbs. Because the model's position affects the lighting, try clicking the light you just made in 3D Settings and dragging it around your model. You’ll notice the difference, especially when moving the light further away from the model (showing it becomes less intense).

Adding annotations Add an annotation to your model by clicking on the Annotations tab and then double-clicking anywhere on your model. A window will appear and you can enter a title and a description. (Plus, you can add links, images, and other formatting if you’re familiar with Markdown.) Click anywhere outside the annotation to close it.

Adding post-processing filters Sketchfab offers a number of visual effects that are great for fine-tuning your renders, making them more photorealistic, or changing the mood of your scene.

Let’s explore a few examples:

Sharpness The Sharpness effect lets you enhance the definition of the model and reveal more details. Adjust the value from 0 (no sharpening) to 100 (maximum sharpening).

Vignette The Vignette effect darkens the borders of the image. It is a good way to focus the attention on the center of the scene.

Adjusting the Amount value will change how much of the image is darkened.

Adjusting the Hardness will change how the smooth the transition between is the darkened part and the original part.

@balue - That's right, you'll need a 3D model file to start using Sketchfab. There are lots of options out there. Try Smoothie-3D, which lets you create a 3D model from a 2D image: http://www.smoothie-3d.com/

So basically if your not good with computers you might as well submit your invention somewhere else because I didn't understand anything on the prepare your 3D file section on this page nor do I know how to use those 3D sketch programs.

@wallmarker - That's right, you'll need a 3D model file to start using Sketchfab. If you don't know how, you can check our job board for community members willing to help: http://forum.sketchfab.com/c/jobs

I've made models, photographed them, photo shopped them, arranged them in a video sequence with voice over submitted once just as the Quirky changed websites, lost the Legacy submission, re submitted...... and now I've got to attempt a 3d sketch? Man that's one way to thin out the herd!

Ok, so if I have set materials in Blender, they won't appear here when the model is uploaded? I have to set it all as a texture? I'm asking because that's exactly what happened to me. The preview had no materials and everything was glossy. :/

@blade113 I'm no Blender expert, but we should be able to handle most scenes, or at least pick out the parts we're able to process. I'd really have to take a closer look at the scene and the Sketchfab result, and probably talk to our devs - we're constantly making improvements to our Blender importer.

Hi. I want to know how to see sketchfab models without internet connection . And if you can set limits to the eye, for example not see the bottom or not the object acecarse too . Thank you
Hola. Me gustaría saber la forma de poder ver los modelos sketchfab sin conexión a internet. Y si se pueden poner limites a la vista, por ejemplo para no ver la parte de abajo o no acecarse demasiado al objeto. Gracias

@carrera - We don't have an offline mode at the moment.
We also don't have a feature to limit camera/rotation, but it's a common request and we hope to implement it in the future. I'll add your '+1' to this feature request.

I have scanned a 3D model in TRNIO and I have been able to read that into Sketchfab. However I am not sure what the next step is to allow me to create a 3D stl file that I can 3D print? I can't see any options for saving the file from Sketchfab?

I see one of my models properly positioned in world map... so I guess now geolocation is enabled and working?!?
I don't remember how I geolocated it, I think I did it by joining Sketchup and ARMedia Player for Sketchup...Although sketchup officially does not support geolocation anymore, I think I found kind of a bug which allows associating coordinates to a model: in all free versions you can still export to KMZ format; just open it in Google Earth, place the model where it should be, and import it back into Skecthup...

(noob) I am having some issues with this https://sketchfab.com/models/51f65371603c403b805d48a1e78bf4b2 model. I download it and it opens in Cura 15.04, I increase the size to 25mm and 40mm in height. I then save the file to the sd card, place it in the Ender-3 Printer, set the heat of the extruder and bed, load from sd card, the printer heats up and when temp is reached it starts to print BUT in the bottom left corner, very very small. As stated earlier, I increased the size and moved the model to the center of the grid.

If I load the program to a blank sd card will it work properly?? it's a 32 gig sd card